Phone-wise, what is a "G," and what is a "GB?" (Read 707 times)

Sorry to date myself, but I really don't know this. Some phones have a 3G network, and feature an 8GB something-or-other. This is what my freebie-with-another-two-year-contract BB Style 9670 has. Sprint is my provider.

Other phones have a 4G network, and a 32 or 64GB thingy.

So "GB" stands for "Gigabyte." What does "G" stand for? I probably don't need high numbers for my smart phone since I use it primarily for phoning and e-mails.

The "G" in 3G and 4G stands for "generation". They are also very, very marketing driven and not precise technical terms -- the 1st Gen (1G) were cellular voice only. 2G was the initial data implementation, and still exists today when you are not under the 3G umbrella. 3G was the move from voice-orientation to data-orientation. 4G is pure marketing of higher performance over the 3G standards. As a general statement, there is no standard 4G -- this is each carrier trying to claim higher data throughput than the competition.

(LTE stands for "Long Term Evolution" and is the beginning of 5G and is, I believe, a marketing term Verizon uses)

These are all very broad generalizations and each carrier's versions and network carry some technical details that make these descriptions inaccurate in some details. But I believe I'm fundamentally correct in the simple statement "G" means generation or version.

I see your profile notes you are in upstate NY. I travel routinely on I90 Albany to Syracuse and for 70% of the distance, my cell carrier is providing only 2G (GPRS) service -- which is voice and very, very slow data. There are occasional pockets of 3G (Edge) along the way.

I've done my best to live the right way. I get up every morning and go to work each day. (for now)

Both of my smartphones have been 3G and I am satisfied with that level of speed/service. I'm not sure 4G would function any better in our area, since I think most of our towers are 3G. Any of these phones can utilize wi-fi connections, too, which is noticeably faster.

'15 Goals:

3G/4G relates to speed and as MilkTruck said it refers to the generation of mobile wireless. LTE is actually not a Verizon marketing term, is a standard that has been deployed in Europe and Asia and other North American carriers (including AT&T) are deploying it as well.

What is marketing is calling the current iteration of LTE "4G." Technically the current versions of LTE are described as 3.9G because they are beyond the spec of 3G (which I think calls for 1MB download speeds) but not at the spec of 4G which requires 1GB download speeds for stationary users and 100MB for mobile devices (in cars and on trains, etc.)

That said, the current LTE networks are very fast compared to anything previously available in the consumers space. About half my friends and colleagues have gone to "4G" LTE phones and I have seen them occasionally get 15 to 20mb download speeds, which is faster than I get over wifi on my home broadband connection--and orders of magnitude faster than the 700k to 1mb I typically see on 3G. But 4G coverage is still fairly spotty even in the Boston market and basically non-existent outside major metros.

The "GB" you see associated with phones refers to Gigabytes of storage space--either in memory or an SD card--not speed.

The "GB" you see associated with phones refers to Gigabytes of storage space--either in memory or an SD card--not speed.

(My dim bulb brightens)

More storage space would be useful if you downloaded, e.g., a bunch of songs or videos, or took three lifetimes' worth of vacation photos? It is not a measure of, say, download speed (is that "data throughput?"*) or wireless performance?

More storage space would be useful if you downloaded, e.g., a bunch of songs or videos, or took three lifetimes' worth of vacation photos? It is not a measure of, say, download speed (is that "data throughput?"*) or wireless performance?

Precisely. I went with the lowest capacity iPhone, since it was the same amount of memory that my previous Android phone had an I never filled that. I don't put more than a couple of hours of songs from iTunes on it, since I've always used Shuffles or a small capacity Nano prior to this phone, so being able to fit my entire playlist on my phone isn't at all a priority. And I tend to clear off all of my photos fairly often, too. I'm also not a huge user of extra apps. I frequently delete the ones that I don't find useful on a regular basis.

My home computer...totally different story. I don't throw anything away until I run out of space on my HD and external HD.